The Case for Christ - Week of Apr. 8

Biblical prophets performed miracles to establish their credentials. For example, Moses said to God in Exodus 4:1, “What if [the Israelites] do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” How did God respond? He told Moses to throw his staff to the ground; instantly, it turned into a snake. He told Moses to pick it up by its tail; it turned back into a staff. Then God said in Exodus 4:5, “This … is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

A similar thing happened to Elijah on Mount Carmel: He was challenged, and God sent down fire from heaven to confirm he was a true prophet (see 1 Kings 18:16–39). As for Jesus, he actually came out and said, “Do not believe me unless I do [miracles] of my Father” (John 10:37). And then he did them. Even Nicodemus conceded this when he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).

This kind of confirmation never happened on Muhammad’s behalf. In fact, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, actually believed Jesus was a prophet who performed miracles, including raising the dead. Muslims also believe Moses and Elijah performed miracles. However, in the Koran when unbelievers challenged Muhammad to perform a miracle, he refused. He merely said they should read a chapter in the Koran. (See Sura 2:118; 3:181–84; 4:153; 6:8,9,37 in the Koran.) And yet Muhammad himself said, “God hath certainly power to send down a sign” (Sura 6:37). He even said, “They [will] say: ‘Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?’” (Sura 6:37). Unlike Jesus, miracles were not a sign of Muhammad’s ministry. It wasn’t until 150 or 200 years after Muhammad’s death that his followers invented miracles and ascribed them to him.
— Adapted from interview with Dr. Norman Geisler